Soeurette Joseph Part III: To El Salvador

Once France was liberated, members of the Resistance began joining the French Army; Soeurette enlisted as soon as possible. She served in occupied Germany until 1945 and then decided to go back to school. The army would only sponsor her education if she studied social work so Soeurette registered for social work school and then interned for three years. She finished her internship at the end of 1947 and started working in the Army in the north of France. As Soeurette had a contract of five years, the only way to leave the Army was to pay them back for her education or to get married.

She was married less than two years later.

(How did you meet Andre?)

I was introduced by a friend of ours who knew his aunt who was – Andre was in France on vacation and he was leaving, actually, two weeks later. And then we were introduced so he stayed a little longer and I didn’t see him. I saw him twice – once the first time and then I didn’t see him until December and in December I saw him and January we were married.

(So you didn’t know each other very long before you got married?)

No, absolutely not.

(What did your parents think of you moving to Central America?)

Nothing. Nothing special, no – everybody has to make his own life, everybody has to decide what they want to do. You know, it was not that easy for girls to get married at that time. First, there were a lot of young men who had died during the war and a lot of people who had disappeared. So it was not so easy at that time. Not that easy.

(Where did your parents move to after the war?)

My father had died in 1942 and my mother came back to the town where we lived near Strasbourg after the war and stayed there a few years and then moved to her hometown of Metz because my sister lived there.

(Which sister is that?)

The older sister lived in Metz. She was a dentist in Metz. She was married there and my mother moved to Metz and she died there.

(And your other sister, where did she go?)

She left for Israel before Israel was Israel. She left with a bunch of young people who decided to go to Palestine, landed on – somewhere on the beach.

(Before you married Andre did you – how did you feel about moving?)

I was ready to do anything, you know. We had had such a rough life that anything was better than what we had so it didn’t make a difference. Whatever we could do was welcome.

(What day were you married?)

We were married – in France. The civil marriage took place on the 6th of January 1949 at the mairie [city hall] and religiously on the 16th of January. I arrived in Salvador on the 31st of January.

(Were you married in Obernai?)

No, in Strasbourg.

(So immediately after your wedding you go to Salvador?)

Two weeks later.

(Did you go by ship?)

No, we flew. And it was very funny because I needed a visa to go through the United States and I was told it was impossible, it would take weeks. So we had already decided Andre had to go and I would come as soon as I would get my visa and that could take four weeks, two months, three months, who knows. And so we went to the American consulate with the idea to tell them that I needed to go with my husband and so on, the whole story. I had a new passport with my new name. I get into the embassy and an American girl comes down the stairs, she looks at me, says, “What are you doing here?” I knew her from the Army because I used to go to the meetings of the American/English/French. They used to take me along and I had met that girl. I got my visa in five minutes. It didn’t take more – the girl said, “I guarantee for her,” and I got my visa. Didn’t even have to fill out papers. And so we left and stopped in New York for a few days and then in New Orleans where we met Alice Liebes who stayed there and gave us Roberto and Raquel to take home to Salvador.

(Did Alice speak French?)

No. Alice spoke German and Spanish.

(So how did you communicate with her?)

Oh, I had no problem. I never had problem talking [chuckle].
I spoke – English with her or – English with her or some German, how much I knew which was poor German. But I got along. It didn’t take me long to – My problem was when I got to Salvador to know what the people talked. If they spoke German, if they spoke French, how do I know what they talked? I once met Jaime Gabay and Gabay spoke French but I didn’t remember that and I made a whole conversation in Spanish and he never said to me that he spoke French.

(So from New Orleans you took Raquel --)

And Roberto and went to Salvador. We were on the plane I think six people and one cow.

(Six people and one cow.)

And one cow. And you arrived in Salvador on the tarmac and everybody came to the plane. You remember that time? Everybody came to the plane and we got – flowers. And they had dozens of roses and now they had the most beautiful ones and everybody came to the plane.

(Who is every – who came for you?)

I don't know but a lot of people. The whole [Jewish] community.


Transcription by Claudette Allison, Word-for-Word.com